A campaign kickoff – The Harris Labor Day offensive

(TriceEdneyWire.com) – In an election year, Labor Day kicks off the official campaign season, and Vice President Kamala Harris kicked hers off with a bang. She had rallies in Detroit, Milwaukee and Pittsburgh, all major cities in battleground states. Joined by local elected officials in each place, vice presidential nominee Tim Walz in Milwaukee, and President Biden in Pittsburgh. In Pittsburgh, flanked by AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler, teachers’ union leaders Becky Pringle (National Education Association) and Randi Weingarten (American Federation of Teachers), Harris gave a rousing speech that reminded us that we have organized labor to thank for the 8-hour workday, pensions, paid vacations and health care, worker benefits that have now become standard.Related Stories Those benefits didn’t come without a fight, nor did the establishment of Labor Day. In the late nineteenth century, the typical worker put in 60 hours a day, six days a week. There were protests all over the country, and workers were derisively described as “anarchists” and “socialists” because they were prepared to fight for a living wage. The most infamous collision happened in Chicago in an event known as the Haymarket Riot, or the Haymarket Massacre. On May 4, 1886, police attempted to curtail...